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Craft, Real parenting and general ramblings

wonder weeks

So LM is now 38 weeks old. I only used the phrase “38 weeks” for this blog. If anyone asks he’s almost 9 months, I’m not one of those annoying mummies. I hope!
Each week I go through the checklists in my Wonder Weeks book to see which new skills he’s mastered.
LM finished Leap 6 last week (thank god) but he is still mastering skills from Leap 4 and 5.
This week he’s started to try and “feed me”. It’s Usually just his teether, but he offers to share it and shove it in my mouth. If he offered to share actual food I might take him up on the offer!
He’s getting closer to crawling and is rolling around the room much more quickly. This is keeping me on my toes. Especially as our stair gate came off of the wall at the weekend and we’re still waiting for the plaster to dry out so we can put it back.
He seems to be teething a lot this week. I’m wondering if his 2 bottom teeth are about to make an appearance?

Little Man is now 36 weeks old. Since he was born I’ve read a number of parenting books to discover when he should be hitting particular milestones and why he behaves in a certain way.
Every book that I’ve read has slightly different guidelines than the last so I quickly learned that there is no strict rule as to when babies hit milestones and that I shouldn’t read so many baby books!
I’ve stuck by 2 books/series as they seem to be based on studies of actual babies and parents as opposed to just opinions of parenting “experts”.
The first of these is the Wonder Weeks by Hetty van de Rijt and Frans Ploot. I have also got the app (App store on iPhone).

Their theory is based on studies of babies who’ve displayed the same behaviours at the same time since the due date. These periods are then linked to developmental leaps. The leaps then translate into skills.
The Wonder Weeks book describes each “leap” in detail. I’ve followed this since LM was 8 weeks old and it’s been pretty spot on to predict when he’ll have a leap in development. He’s cranky, sleeps poorly and is clingy pretty damned much when the book says he would be.
He’s currently on Leap 6 – the World of Categories. He’s a little “behind” in terms of the skills that he should display after each leap. He’s currently mastering some skills from Leap 4 – The World of Events and Leap 5 – The World of Relationships. All babies will master the skills that they’ve acquired at different rates and different orders. LM tends to master the Body Control skills before the others – this week he’s mastered attempting to crawl.
The book has helped me understand why LM is grumpy and sleeps poorly at certain times. It also suggests games, activities and other tasks which can help Baby and therefor help you.
There’s also a Milestones Guide – I’ll review this another time.
If you’re a new parent and have an interest in why and when your baby will develop mental skills, then translate them into physical skills I’d recommend reading this book. It’s available from Amazon and most good book retailers.
The second series is Gentle Parenting by Sarah Ockwell-Smith. I’ll review this later.